Yesterday, the American Bakers Association submitted official comments to the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) regarding the recent antidumping case brought forward by the American Sugar Coalition. This case accuses the Mexican sugar industry of dumping sugar into the U.S. market, driving prices down and forcing the U.S. government to spend taxpayer dollars to protect domestic sugar producers.

“This is yet another example of big sugar’s attempts to control the U.S. market and keep prices well above what the free market dictates,” said Cory Martin, ABA Director of Government Relations. “There is no shortage of creativity among U.S. sugar producers in how to manipulate the market. Blaming a drop in sugar prices, and the subsequent attempts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to prop up domestic prices by creative accounting methods required by current sugar policy, on the Mexican sugar industry is absurd. It was the U.S. sugar industry’s own program that created the problem, yet Mexican growers are the scapegoat, and bakers, other food manufacturers and ultimately, American consumers, are left paying the bill.”

“The Mexican growers and government went out of their way to work with U.S. growers to preserve a tighter market in the U.S.,” added Martin. “They’ve diverted over 800,000 tons from entering the U.S., with almost another 300,000 slated to avoid U.S. consumption, but that wasn’t enough.

“ABA is hopeful that the ITC and Department of Commerce will see through big sugar’s shenanigans and ultimately oppose duties on Mexican sugar imports,” Martin concluded.Click here to view the comments ABA submitted to the ITC on this issue.